" In fact, the White House admits that "a direct cause and effect relationship between marijuana use and subsequent use of other drugs is hard to prove." At the same time, the White House tries to convince readers that adults who were early marijuana users were more likely to have used cocaine, heroine, and other drugs. Both websites offer a balanced viewpoint on the gateway drug issue, but the MPP makes a more convincing argument.
The White House publication called "What Americans Need to Know About Marijuana" is available in PDF format, either as a full file or in sections. The PDF format is convenient for people who wish to save the document to their hard drive and read it at a later date, and is also easy on the eyes. However, there are drawbacks to PDF files, such as the lack of hypertext and the amount of memory usage that the Adobe Reader takes up on people's computers.
The MPP website offers both PDF and HTML formats of their document "Marijuana and Medicine: Assessing the Science Base." The "questions about medical marijuana" are arranged in a table format with hyperlinks. However, the MPP website is difficult to navigate compared with the White House website, which is better organized and easier on the eye.
The MPP home page does include photos from important news articles, whereas the White House site does not. Both websites use language that is easy to understand and straightforward enough for the general public. Both the White House and the MPP website contain links to related areas of discussion as well as links to external websites that are sympathetic...
The White House website contains an extensive "About ONDCP" section that can help readers understand the organization, but does not offer a list of opinions by senators or congressmen.
The MPP uses an extensive range of sources, including the Institute of Medicine, and even reprints an article that states that when President Bush was still the
governor of
Texas, he supported "a state's right to decide whether to allow medical use of marijuana." The White House also relies on reliable evidence from scientific journals but also refers a lot to their own publications as evidence.
Both the MPP and the White House therefore supply accurate sources of information for their
claims. Because of the
nature of research into an illegal substance, it is currently difficult to find definitive, equivocal sources of information about the use of marijuana for medical purposes as well as the sociological consequences of legalizing the drug.
Based on the information provided on these two disparate websites, it is difficult to determine whether marijuana will be approved for medical use in the near future, at least on a federal level. Several states already do allow marijuana for medical use, including California, and in several other states initiatives are underway. Legislation supported by the MPP that calls for a states' rights policy toward medical marijuana is likely to pass in
congress, not necessarily because of suddenly clear scientific evidence but because of
constitutional law regarding states' rights.
Works Cited
Marijuana Policy Project website at http://www.mpp.org/index.html.
What Americans Need to Know About Marijuana." 2003. Online at http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/publications/amer_know_marij/.
